Page 84 - Introduction to Mineral Exploration

4: RECONNAISSANCE EXPLORATION 67

Legal advice is a virtual necessity in land option by which the Western Mining–Hunter
acquisition and most exploration groups have joint venture could acquire a number of leases,
a lawyer or land person on the staff or on a including ML2671. In May 1991 further TEM
retainer. If legal tenure is insecure then all surveys were made and a formal option signed
exploration effort may be wasted and all in October 1991. In late October 1991 the first
revenue from the property go elsewhere. The hole was drilled and this intersected strong
lawyer will also be responsible for checking mineralisation.
the laws that need to be observed, e.g. informa- After further drilling the discovery of the
tion from drillholes may need to be reported Ernest Henry deposit was announced and Sav-
to government. Corporate administration age Exploration were advised in June 1992 that
should be checked so that there is no insider the joint venture wished to exercise its option
dealing or any activities that could be con- and buy the lease of ML2671. Savage Explora-
sidered unethical. A famous recent case tion then commenced court proceedings alleg-
was that in which Lac Minerals lost control ing Western Mining had misrepresented the
of part of the large and profitable Hemlo situation when agreeing an option on ML2671
deposit in Ontario. It was alleged that Lac and that Western Mining had trespassed on
Minerals had bought claims from the widow ML2671 during the ground surveys. In the
of a prospector after receiving confidential ensuing court case it transpired that the pegs
information from another company, Corona for ML2671 were not in the place indicated on
Corp., and in spite of a verbal agreement not the Mines Dept files and were 850 m north of
to stake that ground. Besides losing control the stated location and the lease was rotated
of the deposit, Lac was faced with a large legal several degrees anticlockwise from its plotted
bill. position. The case was settled out of court with
A more recent example was the dispute be- Western Mining agreeing to give up any claim
tween Western Mining Corporation and Savage to ML2671 and paying Hunter $A17 million
Exploration Pty Ltd over control of the Ernest and certain legal costs.
Henry deposit in northern Queensland (West-
ern Mining 1993). Leases in the area, including
a tenement named ML2671, had originally 4.3 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
been pegged in 1974 by Savage Exploration for
iron ore on the basis of the results of a govern- One of the major changes in exploration in
ment aeromagnetic survey. In 1989 Western the last 10 years has been the difficulty
Mining decided to explore the area for base in obtaining a permit to develop a new mine.
metals and obtained information in the public As discussed in section 1.5.2 much research
domain including the government airborne has been undertaken on the socioeconomic
geophysics. When Western Mining selected aspects of opening and operating a new mine
areas for further work they found that much of (see section 11.2.7). The major components
the land was held by Hunter Resources Ltd and of sustainable development in addition to the
therefore entered into a joint venture with technical and economic components are: (i)
Hunter but operated by Western Mining. environmental; (ii) social; (iii) governmental.
One of the areas targeted for further work Most major companies issue annual reports on
by the joint venture was in the general area of their progress in regard to these three aspects
ML2671 as described in the Mines Department of their operations and these are available on
files. A baseline was pegged in July 1990 at their websites. These form a good place to
100 m intervals and crossed the described posi- delve more deeply into specific examples and
tion of ML2671 although no pegs were seen on policies in different countries.
the ground to indicate the position of the lease.
A magnetic survey was undertaken including
readings within the described area of ML2671 Environmental aspects
and an initial TEM survey in August 1990. Obtaining an environmental permit to operate
Savage Exploration was approached in March a mine has become a vital part of the feasibility
1991 and agreement made over the terms of an process but also needs to be addressed during